Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 2.djvu/249

 „ INDIAN ISLANDERS. £0? tive manners and costume. The kris is frequent- ly delineated ; and one very conspicuous group re- presents a Javanese blacksmith, under a shed of modern construction, using a pair of bellows of the peculiar structure of the country, and in the act of forging. Another peculiarity is the frequent oc- currence of inscriptions never discovered in the temples of the^r^^ and second class. I am now to speak of that branch of the anti- quities of the island which relates to statues and images, perhaps the most valuable of all, as from it the most distinct inferences concerning the ancient religion of the people of Java may be drawn. The different images may be ranged into three classes. 1st, Images belonging to the genuine worship of the Hindus, ^d. Images dedicated to that wor- ship in its decline. 3d, Images of a rude descrip- tion, probably of a more ancient religion than Hin- duism. I shall speak of them respectively in this order. Genuine Hindu images, in brass and stone, exist throughout Java in such variety, that I imagine there is hardly a personage of the Hindu mytholo- gy of whom it is usual to make representations, that there is not a statue of. Those sculptured in stone are executed, for such a state of society, with uncommon skill. Not unfrequently there is a handsome representation of the human features, and symmetry and proportion are not disregarded.